Red Palm Oil Chicken Empanadas

I’m trying something a little different today on Kitchen Tested. I didn’t get a chance to take step by step photos of this recipe or even a glamorous photo of the finished product but these chicken empanadas were so good that I had to share them with only the one picture I posted on Instagram! I’m new to red palm oil and when I bought a jar of Nutiva Organic Red Palm Oil at the Vegetarian Food Festival, I was reluctant to open it up and give it a shot. The color is just so vibrantly orange and I’ll admit that it scared me a little but reading about the health benefits finally got me to open up the jar. My first impression: the oil has a mild nutty smell and a fun creamy texture that reminds me of vegetable shortening. Just don’t rub this stuff on your hands (like I do with coconut oil sometimes) because I’ve heard it will stain! Just like coconut oil, red palm oil can reach very high temperatures while cooking and won’t lose it’s nutrients as it heats up. So basically, this chicken recipe is SUPER healthy! And did I mention that my son went nuts for this chicken?!? He was snacking on it the whole time that I was making the empanadas. You can use whatever pie dough recipe you want (including mine) for these empanadas but I based mine on a gluten free recipe from Elana’s Pantry.

Red Palm Oil Chicken Empanadas

kitchen-tested.com

Yields 1 dozen

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Ingredients

Red Palm Oil Chicken

1 lb. chicken breast, cubed

6 Tbsp red palm oil

4 Tbsp chicken stock

3 Tbsp coconut sugar (or honey)

2 tsp coconut aminos (or soy sauce)

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp arrowroot powder

1 tsp salt

Empanada Dough

2 cups blanched almond flour

1 Tbsp fresh sage (or any herb you want)

2 Tbsp coconut oil

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place flour, sage and salt in food processor and pulse to combine. Add coconut oil and egg and pulse until mixture forms a ball. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat a wide pan over medium-high heat then add 1 tablespoon of red palm oil to the pan. Add the cubed chicken and cook until the chicken is cooked through, around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so the chicken doesn’t burn.

Add the remaining red palm oil to the pan. Once melted, add the arrowroot powder and stir for 30 seconds, until the oil thickens.

Add the chicken stock, coconut sugar, coconut aminos, garlic powder and salt and simmer the sauce until thick. Remove the pan from the stove to cool slightly.

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out between two pieces of parchment paper.

Cut out circles of the dough with a cookie cutter, add a tablespoon of the red palm oil chicken to the center of half of the circles and top them with the remaining circles.

Pinch together the edges of the dough then use a fork to close them tightly. Poke a few holes in the top of each empanada for steam to release while they bake.

I'm Melinda, founder of Kitchen-Tested.com. I'm a food blogger, food photographer and recipe developer. My blog, Kitchen Tested, with it’s easy to follow step by step photos and directions, has made a name for itself in the kosher food industry and I'm proud to share my original recipes with you!

Is the palm oil your using sustainably sourced? Are you aware of the enviromental problems associated with palm oil not to mention the human rights and animal rights issues? Palm oil is single handedly wiping out the orangutan population in Borneo and Sumatra where about 8 football fields worth of pristine rainforest is being destroyed every hour. Palm oil is also in the top 3 worst oils you can eat due to it's high saturated fat content!
I think there are other oils that can be substituted that's benefits outweigh the negatives!

Unfortunately RSPO certification had a few loop holes so producers can get RSPO certification when they are still carrying out deforestation and other illegal practices. I'd be warning readers of this blog if they really want to use red palm oil as they arn't worried about the saturated fat levels they need to make sure they are only buying certified sustainable palm oil and not RSPO or green palm which are white washes to trick consumers! Very misleading!!

RSPO is the global recognised standard for sustainable palm oil, all policies have the RSPO standard at their base even if some are looking to go beyond this. As the comment clearly states, the red palm oil is from an RSPO certified plantation which also appears to be certified as organic – a few link clicks and this is information anyone who reads this blog can find out. The supply chain option used in this case is Identity preserved, this means it can be traced back to a exact plantation, relatively simple for this time of product due to the limit amount of processing and supply chain
steps.

The chicken was great (I didn't have red palm oil, so used coconut oil + tomato paste and it was awesome!)! The dough was awful. Followed recipe to the letter (twice!) and it failed miserably. I've made other almond flour dough-like recipes without issues, so not sure what happened here. Oh well, at least the chicken was good! :)